Blogs from San José, San José, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Ja, naa er jeg paa plass ved et merkelig tastatur. Irriterende, egentlig. Hver gang jeg skriver her inne, er tastaturene merkelige. For ikke aa glemme vaare tre, kjaere, siste bokstaver i alfabetet. Klage, klage, klaaage. Eg har ikkje noko aa klage paa. Men eg klakar, her eg sit. Er naa kommet til hovedstaden i Costa Rica, San Jose med skraastrek over e-en. Men klarer ikke aa finne de rette knottene. Her er det kjoelig, og jeg angrer paa at jeg kastet de varme klaerne tidligere i dag. Kom nettopp hit fra den varme beachen, Playa del Coco i Costa Rica. Eller mini-USA, som jeg skal plapre og klage om senere. Hvor skal jeg begynne? Nicaragua. Det hele begynte i Leon. Jeg ser naa i etterkant at byen var noe fattig. Kumlokkene var stort sett stjaalet av ... read more

The next day we didnt do much but eat, watch tv and catch up on all the documentation we needed for the insurance claim. We needed to get copies of everything done and printout some pieces so that took most of the afternoon as we were a little slow in getting around the place. We also had to change all our flight details so Dario called the airlines and arranged all of that as well as calling my doctor at the hospital to get a bit more info about what we should and shouldn’t do for the next little while. Thankfully she said it was ok for us to go to Cuba, and just don’t get bitten by mozzies. The hotel Miami was very helpful with directions to all the places we needed to go and ... read more

Ahh loow! Thats what mi mama always says when she answers the phone. Well its been a few days so alot has happened! Where to start? I had orientation the first two days which was a lot of learning about the university and campus and how things were run and blah blah but then again, i missed probably 60% of the information because it was in Spanish.. :) But I'm going to stop mentioning spanish now until i have something more positive to say! However, I have learned that in alot of situations that you can say "Si si!" or "esta bien" or "mas o menos" and people will generally except that with whatever they were trying to say even if you didn't get it at all. But i do like sitting down for dinner with ... read more

San Juan del Sur has a beautiful white sandy beach and clear, warm water. There are palm-thatched restaurants on the shoreline, while up above the little town there's 'Pelican Eyes' - a private resort with three infinity pools, with bars to match. After all our travels it was delightful to laze by one of the pools as the sun set, and then to ease down to the shore for lobster ceviche followed by grilled sea bass. We could have happily spent more time here, but Costa Rica called. As ever, the border crossing was confused and chaotic. Leaving the bus, we were quickly mobbed by money-changers, people offering to carry our luggage, others trying to sell the (free) forms needed to exit Nicaragua and many more unwanted 'helpers'. There were no official signs showing where to ... read more

It's great to actually be in Costa Rica! It's partly cloudy, breezy and I would guess about 72 degrees! Very pleasant! What a refief from the cold weather back home! I wonder if how often people take trips without glitches!!!! We've had our share with ourflights down here. It started at Dulles airport where the ticket agent didn't have a record of our seats on the plane. They assigned us less desirable seats after some discussion and sharing of the frustration Margie and I felt that there had been a breakdown in communication. We had a very nice surprise when we boarded the plane as Taca had given us seats in first class! My first time flying first class was nice! Very comfortable seats and more room! Both flights were fine. We changed planes in San ... read more

So the day started with a 5 am alarm to get up and head for breakfast. It was great as usual. Then it was off for a ride to to the airport to catch a 7:50 am flight to Lima. The kids managed to finish counting dogs along the streets of Cusco and ended with 534 dogs in total...and I am sure that was not all of them. But then it came....the day we dreaded, the day of travel headaches.......it was suppose to go smooth...flight to Lima arriving at 9:15, then connect to Costa Rica at 10:45 arriving at 1:30 in San Jose....good- yes? Well not so good.....we ended up not being able to catch our connectinh flight- and were at risk of heading bac to Canada (will fill you all in when we get back), ... read more

La Sabana is a large park on the edge of the city centre in San Jose. On Sunday morning it was full of life. There were thousands of people picnicking and walking dogs, but more importantly playing sports. The park has volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, football fields and a roller skating rink. However sporting life in San Jose seems to be a little machismo – only hombres were playing football, tennis and basketball. Women played volleyball or did the outdoor aerobics class. When we arrived at 9.30 am there were dozens of football games in progress. We didn’t know the social rules for how to join in but Jackson put on his boots and started juggling a football and within minutes he was invited to join a team. He then played 90 minutes of good ... read more